(File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Clearing Roads

Dionne: large amount of snow in P.A. cause for plowing delays, problems

Jan 11, 2022 | 5:04 PM

The City of Prince Albert is running on fumes when it comes to snow removal.

That’s according to Mayor Greg Dionne who spoke to paNOW after P.A.’s council finished their executive committee meeting on Monday.

A quick search on the city’s social media and you can find many complaints from local residents.

They range from issues with the amount of snow and ice found on many streets to the snowbanks crews are leaving behind.

“I was in PA over Christmas and the streets were terrible. I would have thought the main roads would have been plowed but they weren’t…” one person wrote on the City of P.A.’s Facebook page.

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Local resident Janice Thomas took the time to email her concerns.

In the email made public by the city, she had an issue with how long it took to clear the sidewalks at Sixth Ave East and River Street East. Her concerns focused mainly on her having trouble accessing the Rotary Trail because of the snow.

“While I am grateful for the snow removal now, I would have appreciated it happening immediately after the snowfall.”

However, Dionne said many don’t realize how big of a job snow removal is.

“We have 240 km of road…we’ve had huge snowfalls; we haven’t had small.”

As for the many snow piles across the city, that comes down to cost.

“It’s very costly to remove snow because you need a loader, truck, and manpower so we just cannot do it,” added Dionne. “We do have to pile it.”

He noted crews do clear the snow from downtown simply because there’s nowhere to put it. This has forced crews to cut off lanes on busy streets in the downtown core.

Also, anytime there’s a snowfall, the high-priority streets, which include the roads around Victoria Hospital, jump to the top of the to-do list.

Meanwhile, Dionne is worried about what the streets may look like moving forward.

“We still got three more months and one of them is pretty heavy for getting snow. March is usually when we get the most.”

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow